How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Cherry Hill
Back in 2014, we were working out of a garage in Gloucester County, doing mostly subcontract masonry repair for bigger chimney companies that didn’t want to get their hands dirty. One Tuesday morning in late October, we got a call from a homeowner in Cherry Hill’s Barclay Farms neighborhood. Their fireplace had been “inspected” by a company that sent a kid with a flashlight and a clipboard, quoted them $4,800 for a liner replacement, and pressured them to sign before he left. They called us for a second opinion.
We brought our camera rig. Spent two hours in that flue. The liner had some surface pitting, sure, but it was structurally sound. We cleaned it, documented everything with photos they could see for themselves, and told them the truth: this can wait. Maybe five years, maybe more with annual sweeps. They paid us for the inspection and sweep, and the husband walked us to the truck and just stood there shaking his head. “You know what the other guy said? He said if we lit another fire, we’d burn the house down with our grandchildren inside.”
We drove back to Gloucester that afternoon and didn’t say much. That night, we called the home office and asked what it would take to open a proper Hearthstone branch in Cherry Hill. The market was full of scare tactics and quick-turn sales. We knew we could do it the right way. By spring of 2014, we had a van wrapped, a storage unit near Route 70, and Russell Haines running point full-time. The promise was simple: every customer sees what we see, every recommendation comes with proof, and nobody gets pressured into work they don’t need. That’s still the promise.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell didn’t stumble into this work. He was pulled into it by the smell of wet mortar and the sound of a brush hitting a damper plate just right.
He started as a helper on a brick crew in his early twenties, hauling mortar tubs up scaffolding in the humid Pennsylvania summers. The foreman was a tradesman who trained us old-school: mix your own mortar, strike your own joints, never leave a wall you wouldn’t put your own mother behind. Russell spent three years learning masonry the hard way, and then a chimney sweep company hired him for repair work. That’s where he first dropped a camera down a flue and saw what years of neglect actually looked like. Creosote glazing like black glass. A cracked flue tile casting a shadow that looked like a fracture in the bone of the house. He came up from that first inspection and sat on the customer’s porch step for ten minutes, just processing it. The homeowner brought him coffee. They talked about the house, how her husband had built the fireplace himself in 1987, how she didn’t want to sell, ever.
That conversation changed something. Russell realized chimney work wasn’t about flues and liners. It was about people who’d built lives around hearths and didn’t want to be lied to about them. What gets him out of bed is the same thing that kept him up those first years: the memory of that Barclay Farms homeowner, the ones before and since who’ve been told they need work they don’t. If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be back on a brick crew somewhere, still working with his hands, still needing to see the finished joint before he could sleep. But he’s here. The work means something. Twelve years in, he still climbs on roofs when the weather’s right, still checks every photo from every camera inspection before the report goes out. The smell of soot and creosote doesn’t wash out easy. He doesn’t mind.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is Owner & Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in Cherry Hill. He’s a certified chimney sweep with level-2 inspection training and a background in hands-on masonry repair that predates his sweep work by years. Unlike a franchise technician who might rotate in and out of your area, Russell lives here, trains the local crew personally, and reviews every inspection report before it reaches a customer.
He’s the one who answers technical questions when the office forwards them, and he’s the one who drives back out if something isn’t right. Outside of work, he rebuilds vintage motorcycles in a small shop behind his house, a habit that taught him patience with seized bolts and the value of doing a job once, correctly. He doesn’t believe in shortcuts because he’s seen what shortcuts cost. When you hire Hearthstone in Cherry Hill, Russell’s name is on the work. That’s not marketing. That’s how it is.
Our Promise to Cherry Hill Homeowners
Our values have a name: K.E.Y.S. We don’t hang them on a wall. We use them to settle arguments in the van about whether a job is finished.
Krafted right means we use proper materials, we train journeymen, and we don’t shortcut. We once spent an extra four hours on a Pennsauken job because the original mason had used the wrong mortar mix and we refused to patch over it. The customer didn’t know the difference. We did.
Every time means the 400th sweep gets the same care as the first. Our camera goes up every flue, every visit. No exceptions.
Your home first means we work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s. We lay drop cloths, we wear boot covers, and we explain before we do anything that costs money.
Standing behind it means the Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork battle. No runaround.
Our Credentials
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We carry full liability coverage and bonding, and we maintain our certifications through ongoing training. Hearthstone Chimney Co. has built a strong local reputation across Cherry Hill, Camden, Gloucester, Evesham, Waterford, Winslow, Pennsauken, Deptford, Voorhees, West Deptford, Maple Shade, and Lindenwold. We’ve been serving this area since 2014.
Here’s why this matters when you’re letting someone work in your home:
- State-licensed: New Jersey requires specific credentials for chimney contractors. We meet them. A homeowner can verify this; we encourage it.
- Insured & bonded: If something goes wrong, you’re not chasing a handyman through small claims court. Our coverage protects your property and our crew.
- Years of local experience: We know the clay flue tiles common in 1970s Cherry Hill ranch homes, the freeze-thaw damage that hits Evesham colonials, the salt-air corrosion near Waterford’s lakes. That knowledge only comes from staying put.
- Strong local reputation: We get calls from neighbors of past customers. That’s the only marketing that ever mattered.
These aren’t decorations. They’re the minimum a homeowner should demand before someone climbs on their roof or drops a camera down their flue.
Rooted in Cherry Hill
Our first storage unit was off Route 70. Our current shop sits near the border of Cherry Hill and Maple Shade, close enough that we pass the Cherry Hill Mall on service runs to Voorhees and Deptford. Russell’s kids went to school in the district. We’ve swept chimneys in Barclay Farms, Kingston Estates, the neighborhoods off Springdale Road, and the older homes near Croft Farm. We know which developments put in zero-clearance fireplaces in the 1980s and which ones have the real masonry that needs real maintenance. We’re not dropping in from out of state. We’re here. We plan to be here in thirty years. That’s why we answer the phone with a person, train local apprentices into journeymen, and do the job like the hearthstone still matters. Because it does. It’s the stone the whole home gathered around.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Cherry Hill since 2014.